ThredUP Launches Try-Before-You-Buy Goody Boxes

In subscription commerce news, consignment startup thredUP has announced it will help customers try clothes on before making purchases through its new Goody Box offering.

With the new try-before-you-buy offering, thredUP purchasers will be able to sign up for on-demand shipments, order personalized items, have them sent to their homes to try on and return what they don’t want to keep, according to Tuesday (Dec. 12) news from TechCrunch.

Fashion competitors Le Tote, Stitch Fix and Trunk Club also offer a similar try-on-then-purchase service, but thredUP believes its lower-cost secondhand items will set it apart from the pack.

The consignment startup’s core business model — through which sellers send their clothing and accessories for inclusion in the eCommerce site’s listings — will remain intact, and some items will even be used in the new offering.

The Goody Boxes cost $20 per shipment, and each box will hold up to 20 items that can be purchased at a discount. With approximately 35,000 brands represented on the thredUP platform, CEO James Reinhart says the company offers a wider range of options than competitors.

“[ThredUP has] more unique apparel brands than Amazon,” Reinhart said. “[It’s] all about continuing to make secondhand mainstream.”

The platform’s machine learning capabilities help the brand identify which items should be added to the subscription boxes. The try-before-you-buy option will provide an outlet for excess inventory. Goody Boxes are intended to help the firm better match its ample supply with consumer demand for fashionable clothing and accessories.

ThredUP made news this year when it opened brick-and-mortar storefronts in California and Texas, with additional plans to open more locations in early 2018. Though it has passed the $100 million mark for revenue, it is not yet cash-positive.

With big-name investors like Goldman Sachs, Redpoint Ventures and Trinity Ventures backing the company, thredUP has raised more than $131 million in funding to date.

For more on subscriptions, check out the PYMNTS.com Subscription Commerce Conversion Index, a Recurly collaboration, which measures frictions that exist in the digital shopping experience for subscription services and products and how they affect the final conversion rates for merchants. It analyzes why certain sites are better at converting sales than others by examining several pre-payment factors that generate either friction or sales.